It still took them another moment before they started moving, but it was pretty clear from Tess’s excitement that it was only a matter of time. The witch got up first, not even ending their sort-of-but-not-quite handholding thing but instead using their continued handshake to offer Ash a hand up from his spot on the bed.

  “Shall we?” she asked with a smile.

  The box of feelings he’d belled normal was starting to feel very full.

  Tentatively, Ash allowed her to pull him from the bed. The smile she was giving him was definitely realer than some of the other ones she’d worn tely, and the fact that it seemed to be directed at him was making him feel some feelings, as did the effortless way she pulled him to his feet. Admittedly, the smile may have been more directed at the idea of movies than at him, but that was at least something he suggested and was going to do together with her so he could take credit for it and it was therefore kind of at him and also he was starting to lose this train of thought a little bit because smiles were nice.

  Thinking was hard.

  Sadly, the hands they weren’t holding were the wrong ones to continue holding once they were actually trying to go somewhere, so the extended handshake finally came to an end. Ash didn’t like that very much. His hand was cold without her there, and he could actually still feel the warmth leaving from the half of her pajamas that had been leaning against her.

  He was cold when she wasn’t there, her house was cold.

  Though maybe part of that could change once they got to the couch?

  Movement on the other side of the room snapped Ash out of his newest delusion, and he yelped, hiding behind Tess purely on reflex as he became aware of the two strangers walking towards them, an action that was mirrored by one of the people in the–

  … mirror.

  The pair paused.

  Ash made eye contact with the Tess in the mirror – the one who currently had a wide-eyed little catgirl hiding behind her, and then the real Tess turned and he had to look up to make eye contact with her, still from his position hiding behind her back.

  She chuckled, then ruffled his hair.

  Ash had only two seconds to enjoy the sensation before the hand in his hair slowed, then stopped.

  Ash opened his eyes again.

  Slowly, he raised them to meet Tess’s. She was looking down at him with an expression that made him feel even more things, but which also unfortunately carried a good dose of guilt.

  She pulled her hand back a little.

  “Err, sorry.” She said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “It’s um, okay.” Ash said, feeling like it was maybe a little more than okay and definitely not wondering if there was some way to get her to do it again. Her hand was so warm and it felt so nice, and he wanted more and why did he keep getting rewarded for doing something embarrassing?

  Ash looked away from her again because he was feeling a bit shy and also some other things, which happened to mean looking right at the mirror where he could still see the witch standing over him with her hand almost in his hair, his ears still folded back to better accommodate her and maybe in anticipation because apparently he did that without thinking and oh my gosh had he been blushing that hard all night? Had that been visible?

  Aaaa.

  It was a nice image.

  It was actually a really nice image seeing the little catgirl standing next to the witch all swimming in her pajamas and he didn’t even look out of pce or anything which was strange because he always felt out of pce but that looked like a pce where he didn’t necessarily not belong and this was a normal thought process and he had normal feelings about the thought of belonging to the witch and there was nothing weird about this thought process.

  Tess coughed, finally pulling her hand back all the way and kind of maybe also pulling him a little bit back to reality.

  “So um, shall we?” she asked, while the catgirl in the mirror continued to turn redder.

  Ash just nodded because there was absolutely no way he would be able to words, and then the two of them set off again in a silence that was once again awkward but not exactly in a bad way.

  She may have been blushing a little bit too, it was still hard to tell.

  The stairs were what snapped him out of this set of delusions. Going down them was a lot less comfortable than going up had been, and Ash definitely needed more support than his current clothing provided. This was something he also suspected Tess had noticed given how she’d swallowed and then pointedly looked the other way once they’d started down the stairs, but he also maybe kind of didn’t mind the idea of her watching? He would put up with discomfort if it meant she was watching.

  This was normal.

  He was still comfortable to hold. Partially in a physical way, but also somehow in a way where the fact that it was uncomfortable and that he needed to hold himself was in and of itself somehow comforting? The fact that he needed it was validating on some primal level that he was not going to think about right now. He wasn’t thinking about it. He had no brain for thinkies.

  The stairs leveled off and then they were once again on the ground floor, the one where he’d first come into her house and where a lot of other things had happened. The candy that he was kind of expecting to see all over the pce was rgely gone, or at least back in its boxes, which probably had to have been done by Otto considering that the witch’s whereabouts were known for the st little while so it couldn’t have been her.

  So far as Ash could tell though, the spider was currently elsewhere. He had strangely mixed feelings about that.

  They moved back towards the living room.

  It was better lit than he remembered, though now that he thought about it so was the whole house. The room was still lit by candlelight, still had pnts on basically every surface that could hold them, and the bookshelves of her living room were still in the process of being taken over by the spider pnt that had tendrils on top of every shelf. Shelves that, now that he was looking for it, definitely contained a mixture of DVDs and VCRs in addition to all the books she was keeping. He’d admittedly been less focused on the bookshelves the st time around for reasons which were probably understandable.

  The witch paused just in the entrance, picking her hat up off a side table and then carefully slipping it over her horns and back onto her head. He’d never actually thought about how the hat had to have holes for her horns in it, but that kind of made sense now that he’d seen it.

  “Gotta be in-costume for Halloween movies, right?” she said, giving him another smile.

  This was another reminder of what his costume was and what she’d done to it and that she was still a literal witch and that cats and witches were typically paired and also maybe that other thing he’d been thinking of upstairs and the briefest image of her rexing on the couch petting the cat on her p except the cat on the p wasn’t just a cat and

  um.

  Ash nodded after another moment, though he could no longer quite remember what the question was. This earned him a wider smile, though it might’ve actually been getting bigger before he’d come up with an answer as it seemed to pre-empt his actual response. Yes continued to be the right answer to everything she’d ever asked.

  “Let’s go pick a movie.” She said.

  For the second time today Ash found himself being led by an excited witch towards her couch, only this time she was actually in the lead instead of herding him. Technically he was being led towards the thing next to the couch instead of the couch itself, but also he wasn’t sure he cared exactly where they were going because he would go anywhere she went.

  They stopped just in front of the couch and equally importantly just in front of the TV. It sat next to gss dispy case that contained numerous DVDs and what was definitely a VHS pyer if he even remembered what those looked like. There was some weird technological mixing going on here. Based on the arrangement, her collection of movies had probably begun in the dispy case, but it now bled out into the bookshelves beside it instead of staying housed in its intended container. It seemed quite comprehensive.

  Tess crouched in front of her cabinet. “Okay, so what are you thinking? Action? Mystery? Anything in particur?” she asked, running her hand up the gss.

  Her hat was once again emphasizing every little tilt of her head, which was happening a lot right now because she was excitedly looking through her collection. It was- adorable? Could he call her adorable? Was that a word you could use on giant demon-witches twice your size who were currently looking through a movie collection with their tail excitedly flicking around?

  “Something seasonal maybe?” she said, turning to look at him while still wearing the smile that made his heart do flippies.

  Ash nodded.

  “Great!” Tess said. She reached over to open the case, still smiling.

  And then she paused.

  “Ah.” She said. She lowered the hand, her face falling a little.

  Ash froze too. Had he just fucked up somehow? Was that his fault? Why was social so hard!?

  “Um” she said, turning to look at him with a more neutral expression while Ash continued to try not to panic. The look she was giving him was meaningful, but not in a way he could understand, which was also really good for his anxiety.

  They stared at each other for a moment.

  “Okay.” She said finally, letting out a very long breath. “Okay. Please don’t ugh at me?”

  Ash blinked. That wasn’t what he was expecting somehow.

  “Okay?” he agreed.

  Tess fidgeted, complicated things going on on her face.

  “I don’t do gore?” She finally admitted.

  Ash blinked some more. “Okay?” he said, tilting his head. He didn’t exactly like gore either.

  “Oh thank god.” Tess said, looking, far, far more relieved than the answer justified. And then she looked like she realized that she looked too relieved and instead got embarrassed. She fidgeted a little. “It’s just, people get weird when the big demon can’t handle– …y’know what its fine, you don’t need to hear this, I’m probably oversharing.”

  Ash actually did want to hear it, but he at least completely understood the desire to not go too far and he didn’t know where the lines were anyways or how to prompt her to continue and he was still struggling with a little with the emotional whipsh of it not being his fault so he let the statement stand.

  “So um. Anyways.” She continued. “It’s not exactly a Halloween movie, but it is at least horror-adjacent and I get the impression it would be hard for you to pick a movie right now, so is it okay if I make a suggestion?”

  This was possibly maybe admittedly a fair assessment of Ash’s current abilities, and he nodded, still feeling relieved that he hadn’t just messed up. Tess smiled a slightly gentler but still flippy-inducing version of the smile. She turned to get the movie.

  Ash felt normal about being smiled at.

  The case she got out was a DVD titled Her Private Cottage. It wasn’t one that he’d seen before, but then, he actually wasn’t sure that he’d seen any of these movies before. There were a few that looked familiar, but the subtle differences on the case made him unsure and also he was having trouble looking at things that weren’t Tess right now.

  She slipped it into the pyer, and the TV turned on to a still image of a little cottage in the woods, the film’s title written across the top of the screen. On left side of the frame, a witch was peacefully leaning out of her window with a cup of coffee, watching the wildlife. On the right side of the frame – the other side of her cottage – a bunch of rowdy teenagers were unloading the first of several cars. Beneath everything, the words “Start”, “Scene Selection”, and “Extras” were dispyed.

  It was a DVD menu. When was the st time he’d seen a DVD menu?

  “C’mon!” she said, practically pulling him to the couch. Someone – presumably Otto again – had reset it to the way it had been when he’d first seen it, the big fluffy bnket sitting in the middle along with the smaller pillows that sat at the sides. Tess promptly went about un-setting it again, sitting down on one side and moving the bnket up to the top of the couch’s back before making some room beside her by putting one of the smaller pillows in her p.

  “You ready?” She asked from her new spot on the couch.

  Ash paused, looking back and forth between the p he was still not delusionally fantasizing about and the spot on the couch beside her that she was maybe intended him to sit on and from where he could definitely lean against her – which would also be super nice but which wouldn’t be her p. But then, what if she was putting that pillow in her p so he could sit on it? That idea was only mostly very delusional, and he wanted it really badly, so maybe that was what she’d actually meant to suggest?

  Ash gnced again at the freshly vacated spot beside her, and then the pillow in her p, and then the empty space beside her, before very slowly, very consciously, sitting down on the pillow in her p. It was admittedly not the most stable of seats given its retive size and the fact that it might not have actually been where he was supposed to be sitting so it wasn’t set up to be sat on, but it was also in her p.

  The pillow wasn’t warm yet, but as he finally came to rest on it and started leaning back against her, it became very clear that the rest of her was. She was so, so, incredibly, warm.

  “That’s – uh.” Tess said, as he wiggled back a little bit.

  And, okay he totally had not thought about where he would end up retive to her boobs or how his tail would sit against her, and there was some squishing going on here, but if he wriggled a little more to the side so that he rested in the crook of her shoulder instead of going directly into her chest then there was less of that sort of squishing and also his tail was free. Though also when he turned to make that fit better, it meant that his boobs were squishing into her which felt differently inappropriate, but she was just so comfortable to lean against, and so warm and it was so nice and he should like probably maybe actually be making sure this was actually okay instead of just doing things if he was going to continue to press them both together and–

  Ash took a deep breath, not thinking about how badly he wanted to stay like this or how warm she was or how he could kind of see into her boob window from this angle before slowly raising his eyes to meet Tess’s. He was not actually sure what his expression was other than some combination of longing and hoping this was okay, but when he met her eyes she was looking back at him with her own interesting mix of feelings.

  “Hm.” she said, not actually clearing up any of his concerns. At very least, she didn’t just end the delusional dream either? “That’s– mm.” she repeated.

  Ash gently rested his head on her shoulder, maintaining the look. She was so warm.

  Tess nodded in a way that was probably herself.

  “Okay,” she said, in a way that also sounded like it was to herself. Or at least, which didn’t sound like an answer to his unasked question. “One moment then, I just need to…”

  She slipped a hand under his thighs.

  And then she picked him up.

  Ash made a noise that wasn’t embarrassing as he found himself squished up against her, followed by several that were when he’d managed to follow what was going on enough to realize what it was he was squishing against.

  “Sorry, one sec.” she said, as she did something to the pillow underneath him with the other hand.

  She scooted back a bit, still carrying him.

  Ash had extremely normal feelings about being picked up and pressed against her. He also had normal feelings about the fact that she could pick him up and then squish him against her while doing entirely different things with the other hand and seemingly little effort on top of the sheer difference in physicality that this whole situation implied, on top of what exactly he was being squished against and the parts of him that were squishing as well as who he was squishing against and his existing feelings about her and the size difference and just the everything. All of it. He was so overwhelmed.

  Tess paused, which was probably unreted to the fact that Ash could hear himself whimper. It was only a brief gnce, but the look of concern in her eyes was somehow even more overwhelming than all of the other stuff that was happening. He clutched her back.

  Tess swallowed, adjusting the pillow underneath him again.Or maybe it was something under the pillow.

  Gently, she set him down again, which was good because he was already very close to breaking. He was kind of surprised he was still aware right now, what with the fact that he was pressed up against her abs and could still see down the window and also all of the other stuff that had just happened. The end result of his brief lifting was a much stabler seating position, with Ash still very much in her p except turned a little sideways, now with the arm that had just picked him up partially wrapped around him and his arms partially wrapped around her.

  And also whatever she’d done under the pillow.

  Both of their heart rates were a lot higher now.

  “So.” she said, in a strangely shaky voice, after several seconds of the only sounds being breathing and their shared heart rate. “Are you ready to start the movie?”

  Ash nodded, certain beyond words that there was no way he could speak right now. He wasn’t even entirely sure he could breathe.

  “Great.” She said. She nodded, pulling her hat down a bit before picking up the remote.

  She started the movie.

  Her Private Cottage was apparently about a witch trying to get away to her old family cottage for a nice weekend alone only to end up getting harassed by a bunch of teenagers convinced that the campground next door was haunted. It was kind of like Home Alone only with magic, where the witch kept having to come up with ever more inventive booby traps to convince the kids to just go home and stop bothering her without having to actually confront them – because social interaction was scary – while the teenagers continued to do everything in their power to blunder through all of her traps to “solve” the haunting of Witch Cabin. True to Tess’s word, there wasn’t any gore in it, but there was a lot of adults-pretending-to-be-teenagers getting hit with remarkably good special effects. Like a lot. It felt like every time he gnced up something was happening, though Ash was admittedly not paying super close attention to the movie.

  With the couch on one side, Tess on another, and her giant hat making a ceiling mere inches above the two, the space they were occupying felt much smaller than the room would suggest. There was a difference between being close together in a rge room and being close together in a small, private, enclosed space lit by candlelight while wrapped in someone’s arms. Ash wasn’t sure he’d ever been in a situation that was simultaneously so overwhelming while also feeling so safe.

  Tess was actually way more into the movie than Ash was.

  It had taken a little bit for her heart rate to go down, but once the movie had gotten started and had had a chance to hold her attention, it actually did. Ash had gnced up at her repeatedly, as one does while watching movies, only to find that the little expressions she was making were more fun to watch than the movie was. The way that the screen held her attention was – cute? Could he say it was cute? The little smile she’d make when things were funny, how she’d hold her breath at the suspenseful moments, how when it was really intense she’d bite her lip with that little fang while holding him tighter with the arm wrapped around him in a way that may not have been entirely conscious. She was significantly more entertaining to watch than the movie was, even if it maybe meant that he didn’t exactly always know what was going on onscreen.

  And warm. God she was so warm.

  For the first time tonight Ash was truly warm, and not in the fleeting way the hugs had been. With her arm around him, cuddling together on the couch, Ash was able to just let the heat sink in, to bask in it. He was warm, and safe, and comfortable, curled up in her soft pajamas, and after all the excitement of the night this was something he desperately seemed to need. His soreness from the wards going off faded away, repced by a sense of peace – a level of contentment that sunk deep into his chest and made a nest so comfortable that the pigeon inside finally stopped freaking out and was settling down for the night.

  Which actually seemed like a wonderful idea.

  Ash let his eyes close. Just for a second.

  UnluckyPerspective